Screenings

We’ve all heard those scary side effects disclaimers on the prescription drug ads before we manage to push the MUTE button. All too often, the voice casually says something like, “…may result in anxiety, paranoia, amnesia, sleepwalking or death.” All of the above apply to the characters in Steven Soderbergh’s newest (and, he says, possibly his last) film, “Side Effects,” where the master of conspiracy draws quite a bit from the master of suspense in this Hitchcock-styled derivation.
The “wrong man” is a British- trained psychiatrist (Jude Law) who sees a possibly suicidal patient (Rooney Mara) at the hospital after she purposely crashes her speeding car against a concrete wall. This “beautiful but troubled woman” explains she has been under a lot of stress—her husband (Channing Tatum) has just been released from a four year prison term for insider trading, his only job possibility involves a scheme by a fellow white collar crime inmate, she struggles to pay the bills working as a graphic designer, has insomnia, and fears her afternoons where depression “descends like a poisonous fog.” But, if he will let her walk free, she will see him as often as needed in his therapy office.
The doctor prescribes a series of traditional mood-altering drugs, but they result in nausea, sleeplessness and perhaps, even sleepwalking. “What about that ABLIXA I see advertised on TV?” the distraught patient asks (while introducing the Hitchcock-style McGuffin). “My co-worker tried it, and my former therapist (Catherine Zeta-Jones) thought it might be a good fit for me.”
The psychiatrist has already swallowed Big Pharma’s propaganda materials hook, line and sinker, joking that Red Bull is a miracle of modern medicine, and signing on to test another drug for a company which will pay him $50,000, get him great seats to sports events and concerts, and provide sumptuous meals and all expense paid vacations. Meeting up with his patient’s former therapist at a medical seminar, she only has good things to say about ABLIXA, and even hands him a pen with the brand name emblazoned in large capital letters.
“Why don’t we try ABLIXA?” the doctor suggests to his needful client at their next appointment.
A short time later, the doctor is summoned to a jail cell, where his client is under arrest for the knife murder of her husband.
“I don’t remember any of what happened,” she says. “I was asleep.”
”We know she did it,” the detective inspector tells the doctor. “The door was locked, there were no signs of a break-in, her fingerprints are all over the knife, and her bloody footprints lead from the body back to her bed. How could she not know what happened?”
“Sleepwalking is one of the side effects of ABLIXA,” the doctor suggests. “If she was sleepwalking, she wouldn’t be in control of her actions.”
And there, in a nutshell, is the case for both the defense and the prosecution.
One of the side effects NOT listed on the side of prescription bottle, is the possibility of the doctor being blamed and the resulting culpability, highly-visible publicity, loss of reputation, unemployment, and crumbling marriage, all combined with feelings of insomnia, anxiety, nervousness, intestinal distress, headaches, and paranoia.
“Can you prescribe something to let me sleep?” the doctor asks his former business partner. “No way,” the other physician replies. “You’re poisonous right now.” And he quickly scurries out of sight.
All of this is handled in the slightly off-center, conspiracies-are-around-every-corner manner that director Steven Soderbergh originally used in Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), and elaborated in collaboration with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns in “The Informant” (2009), “Contagion” (2011), and now, in “Side Effects.”
Like all good Hitchcock-style mysteries, I’ve sworn not to reveal the secrets that cascade in the film’s satisfying conclusion. I’ll just let you know there are no shower scenes, historic mission towers, or angry birds—just some very clever, very motivated people, all trying to grasp the brass ring.
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